OS02/Transcript
This is the written version of #OnlineStar's second episode. The Hype is Real "Mainichi, watashi wa mado kara miteru" Kira is standing on a CD in the blue sky, surrounded by white clouds. Reaching out her hand towards the blue sky above her, she smiles. "My Prince wo mieru" The four lights switch up. "Ne Fairytale Romance wo hoshii" The CD starts spinning around, taking out a stick, she turns the clouds into cotton candy, eating a bit. Throwing the cotton candy away, she continues to perform. The current amount of likes is already above 100 000, the amount of views is even higher. Someone scrolls through the comments while the song continues. "Great!" "Love it" "How did you do that?" "Is that real?!" "Who is that?" "Where can I download the song?" The songs appear on different languages, mainly Japanese and English. Once "Ne Romance Story wo hoshii" is sung, the user scrolls back to the top. Now, the sky has turned dark slowly and millions of starts are shining. Once the "Wowowow" part starts, several Chinese lanterns fly towards the sky. Kira now uses a mic to sing. When singing the first refrain again a close up of her face is featured before the song ends with the final line. The logo ("Fairytale Romance") appears and the video fades out. Rara looks at the screen of her smartphone, wondering what to do now. "So this is 'Kira Star'-chan? The new idol whose popularity skyrocked after a celebrity shared her video? Interesting." The door of her room is opened sweeping and Kazuki, Rara's little brother enters: "I'' am Kira-chan's #1 fan! You won't take my position!" He claims. "Huh?" Rara raises her eyebrow. "The video was shared at 10pm friday. You went to bed at 9pm. Surely not." Kazuki is surprised, cringes and falls down at the floor: "B-but…" Rara sighs. "Come on, little brother. That's likely just a one-time thing either way…" Somewhere else, a young woman wearing the Radiant Garden Uniform, closes a window on her phone that previously displayed the Kira Star video. "It's a nice song." She comments. "Although, she needs to practice. Don't you think so?" From the other side of the room, a young boy In Tokyo, April wakes up. The sleepy teenager takes her ringing phone from the night stand and starts typing on it. Several messages of different people tell her to watch a video. Still sleepy, she reads through the message of a classmate: 23:59 Suzuhara Mikako: Parker, you've got to watch that video. 23:59 Suzuhara Mikako: Could that be a new video game? It looks freaking realistic! April opens the link and starts the video. "I'VE GOTTA GET THAT GAME!" In another room, Luca falls out of his bed. The opening starts. At home, Mai is still sleeping. Her room is as chaotic as always with music sheets, her guitar and pencils laying everywhere. Several papers are full of sketches of outfits, stages and logos too. Her phones rings, playing a classical song. She opens her eyes and hides under her blanket. Obviously, this doesn't stop her phone from ringing. She grumbles something similar to 'Shut up' and sits up. "Another day without April and Luca." She realizes. "I don't want to…" She falls back onto her pillow and closes her eyes. Her phone shows that it's 8am. Mai slowly opens her eye again, taking up her phone and checking the time. "Oh, no, no, no!" She cries. "I'm late!" She leaves her room quickly, trying to hurry to the bath room. She stumbles over the door sill. Mai reaches her class seconds before the teacher enters. Mai sighs, happy that she made it in time. While Tanaka-sensei starts talking, Mai notices that quite a few of her classmates started to pass paper sheets around. "I wonder what has happened." Mai thinks. "Usually, they don't write that much while classes." She realizes. "I guess, I won't learn it either way…" She starts looking through the class room's windows. Once the lunch break starts, Mai takes out some sheets, carefully not showing them to her classmates. She takes he folder and is about to leave to the piano room. "Adding all of them to the program has taken the whole weekend." She grumbles before noticing the conversation of a few classmates. She looks up to a group of three girls. "I don't think that it's a video game." Yumi says. "If it would be a game video, it would have been taken down by now." "But there aren't any publisher information in the description of the video. Just the lyrics." Ayu replies. "She is an online idol!" Aki smiles. "Nothing else." "But it was computer graphic for sure." Yumi replies. "It's not real." "Maybe an anime?" Aki proposes. "Wouldn't work. Copyright problems." Ayu replies. "I've checked Kira-chan's channel. No description or link to a personal VirtNet account." Yumi comments. "So, it has to be a real person. You can have only one account without the 'Sub-Account' tag." "Maybe it's a bug?" Ayu comments. "But the VirtNet would have fixed that by now. It has been two days." Aki replies. "Even Lilylight doesn't know, and Lily is the best information source in terms of J-Pop and idols." Ayu comments. "She has the tag, so, it's not removed." Yumi says, holding up her phone. "But the song is a hit for sure." Ayu says. "Kira-chan? Idol? Anime?" Mai is confused. "Hit? Did I miss something?" She looks down to her music sheets. "I spend the whole weekend working on my songs… Maybe I missed something." Once again, she looks to the three girls. "I wonder if they'd tell me if I'd ask…" "But her debut song is great." Ayu says. "I really like it." "I think, it's even one of my favorite songs." Yumi agrees. "Do you know when it's released? It's great." Aki asks. "I don't know. The description doesn't say anything but the lyrics." Ayu replies. "I hope, we can play it in the school's orchestra." Yumi says. Mai is even more confused. "I guess, I'll check it out later too." She whispers. "Lilylight will have posted something, I guess." She adds before taking her bag. She once again looks to the girls. "Or, should I ask them?" She wonders in her thoughts. She shrinks back. "No, bad idea. I would look like the someone who lives on the other side of the moon." She adds in her mind. The three girls take their bags and leave the class room: "Or, should I have asked them?" Mai wonders. "I could follow them." She shrinks again. "No, bad idea, Mai. Google it later." She leaves to the piano room. Taking out a music sheet with the title "Follow! My! Star!" and starts playing the tune. In the middle of the refrain, she stops: "No. That sound wrong." She starts writing on the paper and exchanges a few things. She totally forget that she wanted to google this new idol. After school, April is waiting in front of the high school's building. Luca is standing next to her, but unlike April, he doesn't seem to be as excited as his twin sister. "It's a nice thing, but it's not as important as the science test, April." He comments. "Oh, you don't get that, Luca. It is important. Mai will understand, unlike you, brother." April replies grimy. "Mai isn't interested in idols." "It's a video game for sure." "Copyright." "Could be a promo too." "Then, the chance that it gets popular is extremely small. Shall I calculate the number?" "No, you don't, Nerd." In this moment, Mai joins the twins. As she is used to their fighting, she doesn't ask about what they're fighting. "How are you?" She asks. "GREAT! Did you see the video?" April asks and Luca sighs. "Which video?" "''The video." "I actually think, there are more than one video in the world, April." Mai replies. "But everyone has seen the video. Wait a sec." She takes out her phone and loads the video which takes a while. The three teenagers go into the direction of the park. "Well, how did school go?" Luca asks Mai. "Nothing special happened." Mai replies while April starts to curse the internet connection, her phone is slowly building. "And your classes?" "Same for me." Luca replies. "Which video is April talking about?" Mai asks the boy. "A video that popped up in the VirtNet Friday evening. Some celebrity shared it and it got popular. Everyone is wondering who made it. It can't be an early product of an anime or video game because of VirtNet's copyright policy. Thus, everyone suspects her to be some kind of idol that produced an anime PV. But no label or similar has been given yet." "Who is 'her'?" Mai asked nodding. That explained the girls' earlier talk to her. "Kira Star." "Doesn't tell me a thing." "You haven't heard yet? She is quite the hit right now. The song is nice too." Luca replied. "By the way, why didn't you reply our messages this weekend?" "I was-" Mai was about to reply when April suddenly interrupted her. "FINALLY!" She holds her phone directly in front of Mai's eyes who, of course, isn't able to see the video perfectly like this. "The voice is something, you need to get used to, but it's good." April adds and gives her the phone. The song starts and after the first sounds, Mai is standing frozen on the sidewalk. "Mai?" April asks once the video ends. "Mai? Are you all right?" Luca asks the frozen girl. April shakes her, but the brunette doesn't reply. "I know, you need a bit time to get used to the voice, but it's a nice song." April repeats. "I don't think that's the reason." Luca replies. "… Wh-what?" Mai whispers shivering. "Tha-that's…" "Mai?" April looks at her worried. "Hey, earth to Mai. What is happening?" "Do you have a circularly shock?" Luca asks the girl. "N-no." Mai stutters. "But?" April asks, wanting an answer. The middle-schooler is annoyed. "Hey, Mai-chan, if it's that bad, just say it!" "N-no," Mai starts. "I guess." She doesn't seem sure through. "What is it then? Do you know that video?" Luca asks. He hit the nerve. She didn't just knew the video; she created it. However, how it got itself uploaded was a mystery to her. "N-no, I-I…" Mai looked for an answer with which she could explain the situation to her friends. Telling them that this girl was kind of her? Maybe, the one who send her the computer had stolen her song? Could the mysterious person even steal her song if she wrote it on his computer? She didn't know. "Maybe, you should go home. You seem to be a little bit pale." Luca proposed. April nodded: "Yeah, that's a good idea." She said. "We'll accompany you, Mai." She added. "Can you walk?" Luca asked. Slowly, Mai nodded. It was too much for her. It didn't took much time for the three to arrive at Mai's apartment. Mai unlocked the door absentminded and entered the room. "When will your mother come back?" Luca asked his friend. "In the evening, I think." Mai replied. The familiar surroundings of her room made it easier for her. "Better call her. Maybe, you're ill or something." April said. "Or that was some kind of seizure." Luca said. "Calling the ambulance would have been a good idea, maybe." "I'll call mum." Mai quickly said. "She studied medicine. She'll know what to do." The idea of an ambulance coming for her was worse than almost everything else. The two twins nodded. They knew that her mother was a professor at the University of Tokyo. They weren't convinced that she could help that much, but they knew that she had contacts to doctors too. "How long does it take from the University to come home?" April wondered. "Not much time." Mai replied immediately. "Okay, then, we'll go." Luca said. "We've got a science test approaching and I am not sure whenever I understood everything." Mai nodded, said good-bye and closed door. Once the door was closed, she felt onto the floor. "What is that?!" She asked. Of course, she could have explained her friends that she wrote the song, but the idea of telling her friends that she generally wrote songs was impossible. Never. "I can't tell them about it." She realized. She slowly rose and went to her room, starting the computer to check the situation there. Maybe, the mysterious person had explained something. "Maybe, he explained something via contact." Mai said out loud. At the same time, she opened a website on her phone; Lilylight's webblog in the VirtNet. "Lilylight is the number one information source in terms of idols and J-pop." Mai thought. "Going by my classmates, she wrote something." Indeed, the blog had an entry about 'Kira Star'. "Kira Star seems to be the username of the one who posted the video." Mai understood before reading out the text loud. "The whole VirtNet is discussing 'Kira Star', a mysterious account without any information regarding her person that posted the popular video of 'Fairytale Romance', a song written out of the view of a girl who doesn't want to live her boring life anymore and instead wants to meet her fairytale prince." Mai looks up towards her sheets. "Yeah, kind of, that song is about someone like this." She notes. "The catchy tune of Fairytale Romance made it a hit within seconds, and the fact that quite a few celebrities shared the video helped too. Something, I cannot tell you too, is who Kira is and what purpose this video has got." Mai continues scrolling through the blog and reads, looking at the screenshots of the video, she created. "Many think that it's an anime promo or a video game promo, but I wouldn't be so sure. Even if it's official and not a secretly done hint from a worker at the company behind the anime/game which wouldn't have survived VirtNet's copyright policy by now, why was it posted on a completely new account? The account isn't sub-acc as it doesn't have the sub-acc tag. Someone has to be the creator of it. Someone who wasn't active in the VirtNet before at all! Quite unbelievable, right? This, or a rule violation is the only possibility. Of course, someone could have asked their grandparents to create an account, they could use. But you know VirtNet and rule violations." Mai shrinks: "Wait. Does that meant I X a VirtNet rule? But I didn't want to do that!" She continues to read: "Of course, the question is who made the video, and why. If it's an anime/video game who really didn't get blocked until now, how? A company just needs to contact VirtNet in the case, they've found a rule violation, and Fairytale Romance is popular for sure. Thus, it has to be a private person. How did she/he do the video? And the voice? We just can hope that Kira Star will start to use social media soon and explain who she is." Mai puts her phone down: "That's creepy." She comments. "But, how did it get posted in the VirtNet? And to who is the account connected if not to my passport? Maybe, this computer was delivered to the wrong address?" She asks. "But in that case, how many 'Sakaki Mai's live in this building? None but me. And the letter was addressed to a Mai too." By now, the computer had started and now captures Mai's interest. She opens the OnlineStar-program, wanting an explanation. "Nothing changed since Sunday." She realizes. "And nothing suspicious happened on Saturday." This time, she clicks onto 'Social Media'. "I haven't tried out 'Social Media' yet." Mai comments and waits it to load. Mai sees nothing else but the typical VirtNet surface; a menu allowed her to read her messages (of which she suddenly had plenty), open her blog, the video system and the social network of the VirtNet. Nothing special. "A typical VirtNet surface. Just with Kira Star." She says. Suddenly, a pop-up pops up, asking her whenever she wants to receive desktop notifications. "Receive desktop notifications?" Mai reads out. "Uhm… yes?" She clicks onto 'Yes' and the pop-up disappears. She sighs and opens the messages. "Huh? They're already divided into folders? Isn't that a feature that takes programming skills?" Mai wonders once she sees the different categories, all messages are divided in. "Personal, Business, Fan Messages, Critics, Hate, Spam." She reads out and stocks. "That… are interesting categories." She opens "Personal" but doesn't find any messages in there. Once opening "Fan Messages", she sees a huge number of messages, she'd consider as fan letters to idols. She doesn't respond to any but reads quite a few. "I wonder who 'Kira' is." She says while reading. "The one who was supposed to receive this computer." She adds while continuing to read. She smiles; the positive letters about the song which is well received cheer her up a lot. Mai opens the Contact-part of the program; the result looking like messages of VirtNet. "Good evening." Mai starts. "I have received this computer, But I think that I am the wrong 'Sakaki Mai'. The account 'Kira Star' doesn't belong to me. Please tell me how to send it back, or to the right receiver." She sends the message and is about to close the window when a reply appears. "You are totally the right person to receive it, Mai." She reads. "It's up to you to use your gift, or to ignore it." The scene cuts to Mai looking at the screen where a video is playing. "I didn't explain the situation to April and Luca, I just told them that I didn't feel well." Mai narrates while she is fixing a few things on the stage program. "Until this moment, I decided to not care about the rule violation problem yet. If ever anything would happen, I would respond that I thought it was wanted by the VirtNet. I didn't want to continue to think about it. The week passed, and the following too. Kira was still a hot topic, but because she didn't post anything, people started to forget her slowly." Mai tells. "But I continued writing my songs and improved Fairytale Romance; it's performance, the stage and the outfit. I like both songs' current versions a lot. Kira has improved too. Her performance has gotten better." "Yeah, let's do that." She says to herself. She finishes the video and enters the social media part, writing a message "Thank you for your support!" She adds two video links to it. Follow! My! Star!'s music video starts. Following the first part, the ending animation starts. Category:User:Millyna Category:OnlineStar Category:Transcripts Category:OnlineStar Transcripts